Split 2013, European Championship diary: Entry 3

The final group game had to decide who would advance to the quarterfinals of the 12th European Student Basketball Championship.
In the game against the team from the Portuguese University of Coimbra, our KIT team had the chance to perfect the biggest international success of a Karlsruhe university basketball team ever. The requirements for achieving this goal were very simple...with a win, second place in the group could no longer be taken away from us.

Our boys got off to a great start and quickly took a 6:0 lead. Elnis Prasovic in particular quickly got into the game and scored the first important points. The Portuguese had nothing to oppose in this first quarter and so it was quickly 19:5 for our boys.
The first quarter ended 27:10 after a very good performance by our team and an alley-oop by Elnis Prasovic (20 points in the first quarter!!).

Our boys also put in a very focused performance in the second quarter and were even able to extend their lead. You could just tell:
Everyone wanted to get to the quarter-finals!
As a result, the boys took a 39:21 lead into the half-time break.

Our team also dominated the third quarter and extended its lead to a decisive 29 points (59:30).
In the final period, they were now able to easily take the game home against an unnerved Portuguese team and ultimately won by 70:37. Elnis Prasovic was the best scorer of the game (29 points) and Matthias Hurst impressed with 18 rebounds.

Coach Uli Himstedt was not at all unnerved after the game: "We've already achieved our goal with this win. Of course, we are proud to be the first team from Karlsruhe to advance to the quarter-finals of a European Championship. We're really looking forward to the next game, because now we can play freely."
In an interview with the sport.kit media team, Uli Himstedt discusses the match against Coimbra and the possible quarter-final opponent.

Head of delegation Dr. Dietmar Blicker (Head of University Sports at KIT) was also delighted with the tournament so far: "The boys are all fully committed and are representing the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology excellently here on this international and very demanding sporting platform."

Tomorrow, our boys will be able to regenerate and then start the quarter-finals on Friday at 6 p.m. well rested.

As always, you can find impressions in our picture gallery!

Best regards and see you soon from sunny Croatia

Your sport.kit media team